January 9, 2007

31 comments:

Yes, it is beautiful. We're moving closer and closer to Star Trek-esque technology every day. Now if they'll just imbed it all into an unobtrusive wearable device, with a contact lense for a screen and control by mind only, that would be something. No more leaving my mobile device behind on the bus.

It's a pretty cool phone, but I'm not sure about the Google Maps integration. According to them, I live in the organic grocery next to me. At least that's where they put the address pointer thingie.

;)

But seriously, folks.. Yeah, it looks like a nice phone. But, being a technogeek, I do have one, legitimate, technical concern: I've been told that you not only need access to the EDGE network (in and of itself, not a problem; it's common enough), but you need some sort of special plan for "full integration" i.e. neat tricks like clicking on a Starbucks on Google Maps to call that specific one. Why? Full integration uses up quite a bit of bandwidth. So, what's my concern? Well, full integration uses up quite a bit of bandwidth. I don't know what the megabyte throughput capacity is per tower, but I can imagine that it might only take a handful of users - maybe 20, 100, somewhere in that range - to saturate that capacity.

Then again, I might be wrong.

Anyway... that's one concern, but given the phone's price -- $499! Egads!!! -- it'll probably be a while before there are enough users to make that a real concern.

Can't believe the thing runs OS X. Yes, I know it's a scalable operating system, but still... a PDA/phone running that OS is impressive, and that's speaking as a Windows guy.

From what I can glean, this is an entire Macintosh computer, the size of an iPod, with a bunch of neat hardware built in such as a touch sensitive screen, cell phone card, WiFi, Bluetooth and so forth. If it weren't for their size making it hard to lug around and put up to your ear, any new Apple laptop would make a great phone, mp3 player, video player and so forth. The key here is in the downsizing they've achieved and (if it works) in getting rid of the keyboard with a touchscreen. Looks very cool.

Sexy looking, but they would have to pay me to switch to Cingular's craptastic service. That hefty price tag of $499/$599 is with a two-year Cingular contract. Yuck. And frankly, with a max of 8GB, it's no replacement for a proper 60GB ipod. I'm also somewhat surprised at no 3G. I mean, what?

Typical geek reactions--discussing pros and cons of various features---but so far the main selling point hasn't been raised. If chicks, including law professors of the feminine persuasion,are saying "I'm embarrassed to say how EXCITED [emphasis added] I got reading about the new phone" that's enough for many of us guys. Who needs a red sports car?

You know, I'm reading 'iCon', the tell-all about Steve Jobs (he treats people such as waiters like rubbish, he's duplicitous, and he thinks he's God's gift, etc.), and I was very pumped today about his keynote speech.

(I didn't read yet what was his traditional keynote surprise, "one more thing...", unless the iPhone was it)

The iPhone exceeds my wildest expectations, as the saying goes.

Said Jobs, "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is".

He may be a bastard, but he runs a company unafraid to boast about how wonderful it is, and how periodically it reinvents itself.

Some on the Left and in the Democrat party want to lose the war becuase they don't believe in the current America - they want a different America, an America that practices statism and socialism, they want an America that seeks out cultural and economic equality at the expense of freedom. A loss in this war would help them further this goal. Fortunately, this group is only a vocal minority.

So all of you true red Americans have a dilemma, the American tech you crave so much, whether it's Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, it's pretty much all been designed and built by evil blue state communist terrorists.

Enjoy your megachurches and your innovative meth labs.

P.S. googlemaps and calling out to the nearby starbucks can be done on a Treo on Sprint's slow network and most likely a brewphone. Imagine BSD on a small embedded device! Who woulda thought that was possible? The iPhone is very cool and very innovative (and it's way overdue), but not because it can do googlemaps while locating the nearby Starbucks.

Google maps is a killer app. It is remarkably powerful, and easy to use while driving. (Drive safely so it is not your killer and someone else's as well.)

In addition to mapping, and finding nearby businesses, and letting you call them, and giving you directions, it also shows the freeway traffic in many cities, without your having to wait 10 minutes for it to come around on the radio.

It would be even better if:A) It was GPS enabledB) It was integrated with the phone's address book.C) It was open sourced. Still, it is one of the more useful free programs ever released, if not just one of the best and more useful programs ever.

It is kind of off-topic, but I had to snicker at this line from that transcript:

We had a new competitor this holiday season, Microsoft's Zune. How'd they do? They garnered 2% market share in November 2006... we don't have data for December. No matter how you try and spin this, what can you say?"

Apple's share of the world home computer market is... 2%. That's after 25 years, as opposed to after a few months. I wonder what Steve would say about that.

Admittedly, their share of the US market is a rockin' 4.8%, but it is still kind of funny for Apple to use the "ho ho ho, look at their teeny tiny market share" bit.

Doubtlessly in the minority, but I liked the concept of the iPhone more than the actual product.

I bought my 30 GB iPod late last year because I didn't want the touchscreen iPod that has been rumored for months now. As it is, I keep my iPod in a combination plastic and silicone case to prevent scratching; there's just no way I'm throwing an iPhone in my pocket along with my keys and loose change.

I pay enough per month to get calls on my cell-phone; I don't want a data plan! I also have serious concerns about battery life for a product that auto-detects and switches to Wi-Fi....that means always on wireless, which drains a laptop battery fast enough (much less a smaller cell phone battery).

I'm sure Apple will turn this into a compelling product, and people who buy the thing will not feel disappointed. But as someone who mainly wants a device that sends and recieves calls...I'd rather spend that kind of money on a Playstation 3.

Unless they can prove to me that its battery is better than the craptastic batteries in ipods, I'm not interested.

I've had problems with the battery in every ipod I've bought, which is a lot since I have 2, each of my kids has been through at least 2 and I have given them as gifts to nieces and nephews.

I will go out on a limb here and say that one other "feature" the iPhone has, like the iPods, is that it's supposed to be replaced on a yearly basis. Hard to believe anyone will want to give that up after just one year.

1. It's tied to Cingular. I'm not saying that Cingular can't handle their end of things, but if you saw the Cingular CEO on stage after Jobs introduced him, you'd have doubts.

2. Battery life of 5 hrs for talk or video, 16 for audio. Note that battery life has always been Apple's achilles heel. Mark those figures down 20% for good measure. Will you need to recharge your phone by mid-afternoon? Not helpful. Also, will the battery cause the device to feel like you're holding a burning log in your hand? PowerBook owners want to know.

3. Techy sites reporting the battery is not removable. Great, just great.

That's true, Daryl. Gore has to support Jobs in the backdating scandal - he was head of the board committee that authorized it. Was it a conspiracy? Did someone fail to meet his fiduciary responsiblities?

I-phone looks good. As long as the stock goes up, everyone's happy. If it goes down, ....